This nonprovisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119(a) on Patent Application No. 00 810 895.3 filed in EP on Oct. 9, 2000, which is herein incorporated by reference.
The invention relates to a storage apparatus for cards, inter alia, with a vertically upright stack-storage cassette according to Patent claim 1.
Card-accommodating stack-storage cassettes are used wherever a multiplicity of usually equally dimensioned cards are to be deposited. Cards are understood here as being sheet-like articles which preferably contain information. This contained information is usually provided on the cards in a machine-readable manner. The cards are stacked, for the sake of order, in stack-storage cassettes, and it is also possible for said cards to be reused by them being provided with new information or being refreshed.
The cards may be, for example, tickets preferably with a price printed on them. They may also be telephone cards which contain a stored sum of money for making telephone calls. The cards may also be ones which have a sum of money which is stored in them and, for various services obtained, can have amounts debited gradually from it. If a residual sum remains on said card, it is then possible, in a machine, for this sum to be transferred to a new card, usually with a sum of money being paid in addition, or to be paid out. The card information may then be overwritten in the machine; it is often the case, however, that a new card is dispensed. The xe2x80x9coldxe2x80x9d card is then deposited in a stack-storage cassette, which is retained such that it can be removed from the machine.
The object of the invention is to provide a compact storage apparatus with a large card-accommodating volume.
The object is achieved by the features of the Patent claim 1.
In order to produce a large card-accommodating volume in a stack-storage cassette, it is not sufficient for this volume to be made as large and/or as high as possible and for the cards simply to be introduced from above. This is because the cards would become wedged, as a result of which it is no longer possible for the cards to be deposited in an ordered manner and the volume of cards which can be stored in the stack-storage cassette would thus also decrease rapidly. According to the invention, a lift unit with a depositing plate for the cards which are to be deposited is thus assigned to the stack-storage cassette. The lift plate can always be lowered, by way of the lift unit, to such an extent that cards, which are usually introduced at high speed (xe2x80x9cfired inxe2x80x9d), are satisfactorily deposited one above the other. The invention, then, additionally ensures a cost-effective configuration of the storage apparatus and in this case, in particular, a cost-effective configuration of the storage cassette, a large number of which, after all, are required. In addition, the storage apparatus according to the invention does not have any elements which would project beyond the cassette dimensions during the storage operation. Not even the flanged-on electric motor projects downward beyond the foot of the cassette in the lowermost position of the lift unit, with the cassette completely filled.
It has been taken as the departure point to configure the stack-storage cassette in as straightforward, and thus cost-effective, a manner as possible. The lift unit, in contrast, is only required for the storage operation and not for being stowed away thereafter. The lift unit is thus designed such that it can be inserted into the stack-storage cassette and removed therefrom. The stored cards may then be stowed away in an inexpensive stack-storage cassette without a lift unit.
In relation to an optimum cost-effective configuration, the stack-storage cassette is designed such that it has a vertically running opening for the lift unit on a longitudinal side. The lift unit can be inserted into the stack-storage cassette at the top and removed again at the bottom without the card contents being affected. During the storage operation, then, the depositing plate, by way of the lift unit, is lowered non-continuously, in a stepwise manner, in relation to cards which have been introduced. The depositing plate, in its initial position, has already been lowered by the distance of part of the storage height. It is only when this part of the storage height has been filled with a group of cards that the depositing plate is lowered by a further depositing step until the entire stack-storage cassette has been completely filled and is replaced by an empty stack-storage cassette, into the opening of which the lift unit which has been removed from the filled cassette is then inserted at the top.
It is, of course, also possible for the lift unit to be inserted at the bottom and to be displaced upward from there. It is also possible for the lift unit to be xe2x80x9cengaged onxe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9cdisengaged fromxe2x80x9d, the top cassette border. With the climbing wheels pivoted in via a slide, the lift unit can freely be displaced vertically.
At each opening border, the stack-storage cassette preferably has a rack which runs longitudinally along it and has teeth preferably directed toward the opening. Matching the rack, the lift unit, on both sides, has in each case one climbing wheel, which is preferably designed as a gearwheel and meshes with the corresponding rack. Using the gearwheel and rack results in the lift unit having satisfactory climbing behavior. Instead of this form fit, however, it is also possible to use a friction fit. In this case, the gearwheel would then be replaced, for example, by a rubber-tired wheel, which would run in a rail on the opening border.
Each climbing wheel (friction wheel or gearwheel) is retained pivotably in a respective first and second retaining unit such that it can be pressed, with spring loading, against the racks, and the two climbing wheels are retained such that they can be displaced toward one another in order to remove the lift unit.
The retaining units will preferably be designed as levers. One lever end has a horizontally running first bearing bushing, which accommodates the rotary axle of the climbing wheel. The other lever end is retained pivotably by a pivot articulation. The climbing wheels can preferably be driven by in each case one set of gearwheels. Each first gearwheel of each set of gearwheels meshes with in each case one of the climbing wheels. The second gearwheels of each set of gearwheels mesh with a worm wheel, which can be driven in particular by an electric motor. As a result, on the one hand, it is possible for the climbing wheels to run in the same direction and, on the other hand, self-locking is achieved when the lift unit is at a standstill.
The pivot articulation at the other lever end of the retaining unit has, in particular, a second bearing bushing, which slides on a coaxial thickening arranged between the first and second gearwheels of the set of gearwheels. This achieves a stable mounting for the pivotable retaining unit and thus also a stable mounting for the climbing wheels, which ultimately have to absorb the entire weight of the cards which are stored i.e. located on the depositing plate. The climbing-wheel-retaining bearing of the pivotable retaining unit is thus not subjected to any disruptive forces which could cause tilting in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the cassette opening. The stabilization is further enhanced by in each case one journal, which is arranged on the inside of the lift housing and has a central bore, and a third bearing bushing at the other lever end, said bearing bushing adjoining the second bearing bushing, the third bearing bushing and the journal being designed such that the retaining unit can be pivoted on the journal by way of the third bearing bushing.
The capacity for stable (xe2x80x9cwobble-freexe2x80x9d) pivoting of the lever-like retaining units can be achieved particularly straightforwardly in that each second bearing bushing and the third bearing bushing have a cutout through which the climbing wheel engages with meshing action in the first gearwheel.
The satisfactory functioning of the lift unit is achieved, in particular, by the provision of a first lever-like extension on the first retaining unit and a second lever-like extension on the second retaining unit, a tension spring between the first bearing bushings of the first and second retaining units and a slide which can be actuated manually counter to the force of a compression spring. The two extensions are arranged such that they are directed away from a connecting axis between in each case the first bearing bushing and the relevant pivot-articulation axis and rest one upon the other as a result of the force of the tension spring. For pivoting purposes, the slide has an elevation which, in a state in which the slide has not been pressed into the lift housing, holds up the second extension, and thus also the first extension, and, in the pressed-in state, by way of the elevation being pushed away, allows the two extensions to be moved downward, as a result of which the retaining unit moves the two climbing wheels toward one another. If the two climbing wheels are moved toward one another, the lift unit can be removed from the opening in particular through a slot corresponding to the depositing-plate thickness, at the bottom opening border. The lift unit can then be inserted into the next, preferably empty stack-storage cassette.
Filling-level monitoring will preferably be carried out in the top cassette region. Whenever this region has been filled with cards, the lift unit is lowered, by way of its depositing plate, by the distance of part of the depositing path. The lift unit is thus lowered in a stepwise manner until the stack-storage cassette has been completely filled.